For you independents out there, does offering free refills increase percaps, or is it more of an expense than it's worth? Even a single refill would sway me to the larger size.

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1. It's unsanitary. The chance for the spread of very nasty germs that you could get sued over is pretty high. Also you have people that will dig through your garbage for large bags or just never throw them away, taking them home, then coming back with them.

2. It detracts from the show. So many people constantly getting up in the middle of the show to get thier free refills will detract the other patrons from the show. This can make their experience rather uncomfortable.

3. Too many large families buying just one large popcorn for about 10 people and getting it refilled about 10 times, each time by someone else so you don't notice, going to different clerks each time. Same thing with the drinks. This goes back to inconveniencing the other patrons.

4. People trying to get thier free refill when others are trying to buy something, preventing them from doing so. I so many times have had a line of people getting free refills, draining the popcorn supply in a matter of minutes, AFTER thier show just ended, preventing new customers from getting popcorn for thier show. This is so rude I cannot fathom a response to these people. What kills me is that this popcorn will go wasted and into thier trash at home. All at my expense.

SO THE ANSWER IS...

No refills, free, paid, or otherwise. I had a sign that read this...

"WE DO NOT OFFER REFILLS ON ANY SIZE POPCORN AND DRINK"
"THIS IS FOR YOUR HEALTH AND SAFETY"
"OTHER THEATERS MAY NOT CARE ENOUGH ABOUT YOU TO DO THIS"
"BUT WE LOVE YOU"
"WE INSTEAD HAVE VALUE PRICING TO HELP YOU AFFORD TREATS"
"FOR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY"
"WE THANK YOU FOR HELPING THIS THEATER SAFE FOR EVERYONE"

It always worked, people found it interesting that doing refills increased thier chance of catching a cold or the flu, or spreading other things like food poisoning and the such.

Of course we don't tell them that they are going to get all this stuff by sitting next to these germ bags in the theater, but they don't need to know that.

Dave

And there are safe ways to do refills (at least with tubs, we don't use bags so I'm not sure about them) to prevent sanitary issues.

For Sodas: Make the guest remove all lids and straws. Only hold the cup from the bottom edge. Scoop ice with an ice scoop dropping the ice in OVER the cup by a few inches (obviously not doing so over an open ice bin). Obviously use soda towers with pushbutton control that do not have sensor arms.

For Popcorn -- Again only touch the container from the bottom lip edge of the tub, use a popcorn scoop OUTSIDE of the bin and drop the popcorn over the container by a couple of inches.

As for large families getting refills, it sounds like you might need a family combo or something like that. But I personally wouldn't eliminate refills just because of that *shrug*.

As for people getting up in the middle of the show, so what? People get up to use the restroom as well, does that mean we should close them during the show because it may disturb other guests? I've heard many compaints over the years, but I have never heard a guest complain (nor have I ever been personally been bothered seeing a film myself) about people getting up and getting refills during a show.

As for refills after the show draining your popcorn supply, again I have never seen this happen personally for me, and frankly I encourage guests to get refills on their way out (its another upsell technique when they say that they couldn't eat the tub and I suggest they get their refill for the road.). If this is an issue at your location maybe you could plan for it by popping extra so that you won't run out of popcorn?

I don't know your situation, and markets could be drasticly different but I have always found in my experience that the positives of a refill policy (including higher per caps, higher vending sales, and higher commissions) far outweigh any potential negatives.

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I look at the percentage of profit, and overall profit. If I upsize by ten ounces and only charge 50 cents, and offer a free refill. Hey, I upped my intake by 50 cents, but now I am giving out ten extra ounces of fluid, and now obligated to a free refill, another 44 ounces. This is why I do not like refills.

If you value price, size, combo, whatever, it works. Really it does.

As for people never complaining that people keep leaving and getting refills. OF COURSE THEY WONT. Most of the people that would be affected and upset by the constant in and outs during the movie dont want to miss a second of the film. Why would they spend two minutes complaining? And who complains about that? Just because complaints aren't lobbied doesn't mean that people don't notice a problem.